Snellen chart
Hot glass, ceramic transfer and copper, blown by Jim Maskrey 2005
This piece was inspired by my early experience of eye tests, staring watery-eyed at a jumble of apparently random diminishing letters trying to respond to the repeated question ‘is that sharper now?’.

The Snellen chart, most commonly-used in the West, was created by Herman Snellen in 1862. He sat his assistant 20 feet away from a white board printed with specially-designed letters to find the smallest he could see. This became the ‘norm’ or benchmark for everyone all around the world. So when people say they have ’20:20 vision’, it means that they can see the same size letters at 20 feet as Snellen’s assistant could.

In this work, multiple layers of my own eyes seem to gaze at the viewer and at themselves in a surreal conversation.

The piece began as a clear glass bubble, onto which handprinted transfers were applied before reheating and dipping into hot glass. Allowed to cool, another set of transfers were applied before reheating, dipping, shaping and polishing.